A Few Seconds Difference
by God of Static
Summary: Amazing how much a person’s destiny can change in just a few seconds. A story about the Sound genin Dosu, Kin, and Zaku.
1. Chapter 1

The Truth Revealed

Chapter 1

Changing Fate

A steady wind blew through Konoha as a lone figure jumped from rooftop to rooftop, searching for his target. He found him, surprisingly, not inside the Sand's temporary living quarters, but on top of one of the many buildings of Konoha.

Dosu Kinuta landed on the rooftop, taking note of the unusual fish statues adorning the ends. Carefully he made his way towards one of the statues, his lone eye ever watchful of the figure silhouetted against the full moon. No one knew he was out here, having snuck out of the Sounds living quarters seemingly undetected.

Dosu came to a stop while he was still a safe distance away, his overly long sleeves flapping in the wind. "This was unexpected…do you not sleep?"

Gaara looked down from the statue he sat upon. "What do you want?" he replied, uninterested in anything the Sound ninja had to say.

"I was thinking of defeating you right here, right now. Then I'll have a higher possibility of fighting Sasuke-Kun."

Dosu pulled his sleeve up revealing the metallic speaker attached to his arm, the metal glinting in the moonlight. "I know of your sand attacks. Which do you think is faster? Your sand or my sound?"

Gaara's eyes narrowed at the fool below him, and turned his head back to stare at the moon. The wind suddenly began to pick, signaled by the wind chimes decorating the statues. "When there is a full moon…"

Dosu cautiously took a step back, his instincts telling him something was wrong.

"When the moon is full…" Gaara continued. "…_his_ blood gets excited." Sand suddenly began pouring out of his gourd, surrounding the boy as he started to change. Dosu's eye widened in shock and fear, seeing Gaara's silhouette grow larger and more deformed growing to the point where it almost blocked out the moon.

"What…what are you...?"

The creature jumped down from the statue and onto the rooftop, bringing up a cloud of dust and debris with it. He picked up speed and shot right at Dosu, shaking the roof and ripping up boards in its wake. Dosu watched the thing heading strait for him, and did what any sane, logical person would do in his situation.

He jumped out of the way.

Dosu just barely made it out of the creature's path before it plowed into him, sending bits of wood at him as it flew past. As soon as his feet touched the ground Dosu took off running, trying to get some distance between him and the…thing behind him.

He turned his head and came to a dead stop when he saw what was behind him. Gaara was there, kneeling in front of large pile of splintered wood, the exact spot where Dosu had been standing just a moment ago. If he had hesitated for just a few more seconds, he would have been killed.

Slowly Gaara got to his feet, turning to meet the sound ninja's gaze. Dosu's eye twitched in fear as he looked into Gaara's bloodshot eyes. This guy…this thing…what the hell was he?

Dosu was feeling something he hadn't felt in a long time: fear.

Without so much as a blink on Gaara's part the plug on his gourd shot off and sand began pouring out, pooling at Gaara's feet. For the longest time they just stood there, Dosu too afraid to move, and Gaara just watching him like a crazed, hungry animal. Dosu's foot twitched, and all hell broke loose.

A tendril of sand shot out toward Dosu, who dodged it only to have another one slam into his chest, propelling him back with surprising force. Dosu managed to regain his footing just before he went over the edge of the roof, which was the only upside of his current situation.

Before him walls of sand was approaching at high speed, ready to envelope and crush the life out of him. Dosu braced himself and pulled the sleeve off his melody arm again.

"You shouldn't underestimate me!" Dosu met the wall head on, driving his fist into the sand and releasing his sound attack, the vibrations from the speaker breaking the sand apart enough for him to break through. The sand immediately started to pull itself back together, almost enclosing on him as Dosu jumped through. Dosu took off running as soon as his feet touched the rooftop again, turning his gaze back to Gaara, who hadn't moved since his initial outburst.

* * *

Unknown to either genin, they had a small audience watching them. A few roofs over two figures stood on a small balcony, watching the exchange with interest.

"That was incredible. Was that his true form?" Kabuto spoke calmly, pushing his glasses back into place.

Baki nodded. "Yes, but is this all right? He is a sound…"

"It's ok. We have no use for him anymore."

Baki turned to the sound's spy, the one half of his face visible showing obvious confusion. "I thought that he was a guinea pig to see how strong that Susuke kid was?"

Kabuto smiled. "No, there's no need for that anymore."

Baki eyed Kabuto carefully, his casually disdain for his own men leaving a foul taste in the sand ninjas mouth. Soon enough though his attention was drawn back to the fight, a tad surprised it was taking this long.

"Actually…" Kabuto said, thinking about it a bit more. "You may want to calm him down if they don't finish soon, it would be a shame if they attracted some unwanted attention. We wouldn't want Gaara disqualified from the exams would we?"

Baki nodded and disappeared, moving at speeds only a ninja was capable of. Kabuto smirked to himself and pulled out a kunai "And while you do that, I'll take care of another little problem…"

* * *

Dosu dodged another tendril of sand, in a futile effort to get closer to Gaara. Even though his sound attacks would blow apart his sand, it would just reform seconds later giving him only enough time to move out of the way.

Dosu dodged another wave of sand, only to feel an abrasive tug on his leg. Looking down he saw a tentacle of sand wrapped around his left leg, already tearing through his pant leg and digging into his skin. _"No…!"_

"GAARA!"

For a split-second Gaara's attention was diverted from the fight, but that was all Dosu needed. Taking advantage of Gaara's momentary distraction, Dosu slammed his fist into the ground, the sound waves from his speaker dissipating the sand wrapped around him, allowing him to escape.

Baki appeared on the rooftop, a safe enough distance from Gaara so he could retreat if necessary. "Gaara, I need you to calm down. Remember why we're here, don't go against the plan." Baki said, choosing his words carefully.

Dosu didn't know what the man was talking about and he didn't care. Right now all he was worried about was getting out of this alive. He turned his back to the two and ran off.

Gaara's eyes narrowed at Jonin. "I care little for Orochimaru's plans."

That was the only thing that stopped Dosu from escaping from the rooftop. He turned his head back towards the two._ "What does Sand have to do with Orochimaru_?"

Baki gritted his teeth, knowing he was treading on thin ice already. "Your actions here are sure to draw attention from Konoha if they continue, and there's a good chance that this area will soon be crawling with their ninja! We need to get out off here now; otherwise they may not allow you to fight in the Chunin exam!"

Gaara regarded Baki with a cold stare, one the older ninja had never quite gotten used to, and disappeared in a tornado of sand leaving no trace behind.

Baki let out a sign of relief, thankful the Gaara had cooperated. He looked over at the sound ninja, briefly wondered what he was thinking, and took off himself.

Dosu just stood there, his sleeves flapping in the wind as his mind processed the information he had just learned. What kind of deal did Orochimaru make with sand? And why did he not tell him?"

"Orochimaru…it is not wise to keep your followers in the dark like this. They may start to mistrust you…

* * *

Kin lay in her bed, twiddling a needle between her fingers. The genin from Sound had since recovered from her fight with the shadow-user, but didn't really feel like getting out of bed. Now that she had failed the exams, what use was she to Orochimaru-sama?

On the bed next to hers, the short distance separated by a sheet, lay her teammate Zaku. He had gotten it a lot worse than she had, the Konoha medics saying they weren't sure if he would ever be able to use either of his arms again. The injuries he sustained from the bug-freak were that bad.

Kin gritted her teeth as another groan of pain came from the other side of the sheet, and she began wishing that Orochimaru-sama had assigned them separate rooms. She was going to be stuck with them during the exams anyway, was it too much to ask for a little privacy? She put up the sheet herself. It wasn't that she didn't trust her teammates…well actually she didn't trust them at all.

But right now she condemned her living arrangements not just for lack of privacy, but for new annoyance of Zaku's grunts and groans that she had to put up with. Maybe it was worth it to get out of bed after all…

Next to her, Zaku lay still in his bed staring up at the ceiling. Next to him his arms lay motionless, heavily wrapped in bandages that covered the extensive injuries they had received. For all the good it would have done Zaku was practically dead to the world, the only thoughts going through his mind being of his defeats in the exam, first by Sasuke, then by Shino.

They just kept playing in his head over…and over…and over…

HOW THE HELL DID HE LET THIS HAPPEN?

He was supposed to show everyone how he had changed, how he was no longer that weak little boy struggling to survive. He was ZAKU ABUMI, Orochimaru's prized student! It wasn't supposed to be like this!

In vain he tried moving his arms again; sweat building on his forehead as he tried to will them to move only to be met with the same intense pain he had felt the last time. Groaning he let them rest at his sides again, giving up.

This was it. He was finished. He was useless to Orochimaru-sama now. What good is a ninja without arms?

The noise to his far left acquired his attention, turning his head to see Dosu climb in through the second-story window, looking like hell.

The sheet next to Zaku's bed was shoved aside by Kin when she heard the window open. Tough they hadn't said anything, both of them had been wondering where Dosu had gone.

"Hey Dosu where were you? You didn't come back last night." Kin asked, curious as to what he had been doing.

Dosu walked silently towards his bed on the wall opposite of theirs and with a sigh he sat at the foot of his bed, not giving his teammate any sign that he heard her.

Kin started getting annoyed at her question being ignored, and was about to let him know it when she happened to glance down. "Damn Dosu what happened to your leg?"

Dosu looked up at his teammates as if he had just noticed they were there, before glancing down at his ripped up pant leg and the bloody wound he had received from Garra, which was just beginning to scab over. "Ahh…I tripped." In a bid to change the subject he turned towards Zaku. "How are your arms Zaku?"

Zaku just shot him a nasty glare and turned his head to look out the window. Dosu recognized his facial expression, the look of someone who had been broken.

Kin however was not about to let the subject drop so easily. "Now wait a minute, even if…"

At that moment however the sound of footsteps could be heard in the hall way outside their door, and there was only one person it could have been.

Zaku sat up, hissing as more pain shot through his arms as the hung limply from his sides while Kin and Dosu stood up at attention. All three of them remained silent and still, awaiting their master. If there was one thing that they could all agree on it was that when you were in Orochimaru's presence, you paid attention.

The door opened wide as the snake man entered, that unsettling smile on his face.

"And how are my genin doing today?"

None of them said anything, their looks of shame telling him everything. Well, at least for Zaku and Kin. Dosu seemed to have a different look in his eye.

"Orochimaru-sama!"

Orochimaru watched as Zaku dragged himself out of his bed, wincing as he did so. With a look akin to desperation his pupil approached him.

"I sorry I failed you Orochimaru-sama, please give me another chance to prove myself to you." Zaku pleaded, keeping his head low.

Orochimaru sneered. "And what use is a second-rate ninja who can't even use his arms? What use do you think you could possible be to me?"

Those words probably cut through Zaku worse than knife could have.

The feel of a warm hand on his cheek raised Zakus face up, seeing the gentle smile on his master's face.

"Don't worry Zaku, I will not abandon you yet." He said his smile back in place. "You still have use to me." Orochimaru lowered his hand. "Now we have to work on those arms, you won't be any use to me with those useless appendages."

If his words from before had cut Zaku to pieces, what he was saying now definitely put him back together.

"There's someone here I want you to meet." Another figure appeared in the doorway at Orochimaru's words, one that the Sound trio instantly recognized. "This is Kabuto; he has been a spy for me in this village for some time now and is quite the skilled medic-nin."

Dosu scrutinized the glasses wearing shinobi carefully, taking this in. Just how much was Orochimaru hiding from them?

Orochimaru moved aside to let Kabuto approach Zaku, who bent down to examine his arms. He gently placed his palms over his arms, sending some of his chakra into them to get a clearer picture of what he was dealing with. After a minute he looked back at Orochimaru. "Yeah, I can deal with these."

"Good, but that will have to wait. I have other things for you to take care of first." Orochimaru looked down at Zaku's face. "Don't worry, he will fix them. It just may be some time before he does. Your strong enough to wait aren't you?" Orochimaru smiled and turned to leave, glancing back at them for one more announcements.

"Kin, Zaku, make sure you get plenty of rest and Dosu, try not to injure yourself training for the exams, I need your bodies in good shape for your next mission." The snake's grin grew slightly wider as he said this, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Dosu.

With a nod Kabuto got up and followed Orochimaru out the door, closing it behind him. With one look Dosu could see the old Zaku was back, and they would soon again be dealing with the rude, arrogant, loud-mouthed Zaku they had been used to. Dosu inwardly thanked the heavens for that, having rather deal with Zaku the asshole than Zaku the depressed cripple.

* * *

Time passed, and very soon the month was almost up. It was three days before the third part of the Chunin Exam began, and on the rooftop of the Sounds building Kin was practicing, having set up a practice dummy on the flat rooftop. The long-haired ninja was jumping all over the place, throwing needles from every possible direction and having each one hit its target almost flawlessly. True she had already failed in the exams, but she was here to make sure something like that never happened again.

Another throw, another needle landing in her opponents "heart". She stopped for a moment, examining her work. She was off by a just a little on her target. She cursed herself, this was no good. Orochimaru expected more than this from her.

With a sigh she took out another handful of needles, only to pause when she heard someone landing on the roof behind her. Instincts catching up with her she quickly turned around on her foot, arms ready and raised to turn whoever was behind her into a pincushion, only to be lowered when she saw it was just Zaku.

"Hey." Zaku said as he approached her, both his arms still wrapped up and in separate slings. It had been quite some time since Kabuto had looked at Zaku's arms, and the medic still hadn't healed them, something that was making Zaku a little edgy.

"What you want?"

"I'm here to train, so get lost. You've been using this spot all week anyway."

Kin just looked at the boy, an "are you serious" look on her face. "No way! I was here first, go find somewhere else to practice," she said with a smirk, gesturing towards his arms. "…it's not like you can do much like that."

Zaku glared at Kin, who just glared back at him, and with a smirk walked over to her needle covered training dummy, coming to a stop in directly in front of it.

"Hey, what are you…?"

Ignoring her question Zaku jumped into the air, his leg coming up and smashing itself into the dummy's face, knocking it to the ground.

"Hey I had to steal that from Konoha's training grounds!" Kin yelled at him. "Do you know how hard that was?"

His foot landed on top of the dummy's head, crushing it under the weight. "I'd imagine it would be hard for a weakling like you," Zaku said with an arrogant smirk.

"WHAT!?" Kin yelled, her face turning red.

"You heard me. Now as you can see I can still use my legs, so I can still train. Now get out of here and find somewhere else to play with your needles."

He watched as Kins face got redder and her knuckles turned whiter as she squeezed them. He expected her to start throwing a volley of needles at him, which he was sure he could avoid._ "Perfect." _He thought. _"I've been itching for a fight."_

Instead of attacking however, she just raised her right hand and starting moving her fingers back and forth in a familiar movement, which was soon followed by a familiar sound.

Zaku groaned in pain as a dull ache in his head began to grow at the sound of tiny bells ringing. _"But how? She didn't even…"_ His question was answered however when he spotted them, the bells attached to needles already lodged in the practice dummy. He staggered backward as the pain grew in his head and he began to lose his footing.

A cruel smile grew on the raven-haired girls face as she watched Zaku fall to his knees. "What's wrong Zaku?" She cooed. "Are your arms hurting again? Want me to kiss them and make them better?"

"You bitch…"

Kin laughed to herself and got a few needles ready. She was just going to land a few of them in those legs of his, teach him a lesson or two.

"Geez, can't you avoid confrontation for one day Zaku?"

Kin looked behind her, seeing Dosu walking calmly towards her. She hadn't even heard him until he had spoke up.

"Hey Dosu, what are you doing here?" She asked, not stopping her genjutsu attack on Zaku. It was odd to see Dosu during this time of day, as for the past few weeks he had been disappearing during this time, coming back at night looking worn out and tired. She and Zaku had assumed he was training for the exams.

"There's a matter I wanted to discuss with you." Dosu said looking over at Zaku, who was trying to crawl away from the bells using just his legs. "You will need to stop that; he needs to hear this too."

Kin gave an annoyed sigh, canceling out her chakra strings and releasing Zaku from her genjutsu, who soon crawled back to his feet looking ready to tear her head off.

"That's enough out of both of you." Dosu stated as he moved in between the two before Zaku got any closer to Kin. "There's something we must talk about."

Kin and Zaku looked at Dosu intently, though Zaku's eyes did travel to shoot an angry look at Kin.

"Not here though. Follow me." Dosu took off, slow enough for Kin and Zaku to realize what he was doing and follow. They followed him through the village, jumping from rooftop to rooftop and being sure to avoid known areas of shinobi activity. Soon enough they had traveled halfway across Konoha with Dosu coming to a stop in an abandoned alleyway between two buildings on one of the less populated streets of the city.

Dosu looked around, scrutinizing his surroundings for anyone that may have been listening, before taking a deep breath and turning to face Zaku and Kin.

"I no longer trust Orochimaru."

Out of the list of things he could have said, no other could have surprised his teammates than that one.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Zaku screamed while Kin just stared at him looking shocked.

Immediately Dosu was on him, covering Zaku's mouth with his hand and putting a finger up to his own bandaged mouth, gesturing for him to be quite.

After Zaku nodded Dosu lowered his hand and was met with the same, although more quietly asked question. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Orochimaru has been lying to use from the start," Dosu explained. "He ordered us to kill Sasuke during the exams, only to give him a curse seal on his own." His only visible eye, usually unreadable, flickered with a hint of anger. "We were just pawns to test against Sasuke's strength."

Kin and Zaku just stared at Dosu like he was insane. Any kind of talk against Orochimaru by one of his own men could be considered the equivalence of a suicide note.

"So what?!" Zaku yelled at him, apparently forgetting to keep his voice down. "So he changed his plans! It's not like he's conspiring against us! You're so full of shit!"

Dosu just stared back at him calmly, not showing any reaction to his outburst. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

His teammates kept quite. He was serious.

"There is some kind of agreement between Sand and Sound." Dosu went on. "I am not sure of all the details but…" Dosu paused and gestured for them to move closer and whispered the rest. "…it involves a joint attack on Konoha during the third part of the exams."

Kin stared at Dosu, not convinced. "How could you possible know that? We were never told…"

"Of course we were never told," Dosu interrupted her. "He doesn't think us important enough to include in his plans."

"Ok, but what how did you hear about this at all?"

Dosu stared back at Kin, not sure of how to proceed. "There is a…technique I've been working on."

Dosu sighed as Kin and Zaku leaned in closer, obviously interested. "It works on the idea that when one sense goes out, others grow stronger to compensate. Using my chakra I block off the four senses, sight, taste, touch, and smell, making my brain completely hearing-dependent. After that I use more chakra to increase my ears strength, enabling me to hear things much more clearly and from greater distances." Dosu looked at the surprised looks of his teammates. "It is how I've been listening in on Orochimaru's plans."

"Why the hell didn't you mention this before?!" Zaku asked.

"It's best to save your trump cards until it's absolutely necessary to use them. I would have thought you would have learned that by now Zaku." Dosu said calmly.

Needless to say Zaku was not happy about the remark

Kin, however, was impressed. She knew Dosu was smart, that was why he usually made the plans for the team, but she didn't expect him to be able to come up with something like this. "So…what has he said about us?"

Dosu let out another sigh. "Not much. Only that we three will be 'useful' when he goes up against the Hokage."

Zaku snorted. "Well that's it isn't it? That proves he still needs us!"

Dosu looked at back at Zaku. "I am…not convinced that is the case…"

"You're so full of bullshit!" Zaku spat. "Have you forgotten all he's done for us? How he's the only one who ever treated like we were worth something! He's given us more than we could have ever hoped for…!"

"But why?" Dosu stared at Zaku. "After all he's taught us, all he's shown us, do you really think he is the type of person who stands behind his promises?"

Zaku didn't answer; instead letting his actions do the talking.

Dosu ducked as Zaku aimed a kcik for his head and jumped back as Zaku went in for another. Zaku's leg sailed at him again a third time, only to have it caught midair by Dosu. Without his arms, he was no match for him.

Dosu gaze pierced Zaku's "Did you know that he did not stick around for your fight against the bug user?"

Dosu let go of his foot and Zaku fell backwards, landing hard on his back. He looked up at Dosu, looking angrier than he had in his last fight. He slowly made his way back to his feet "This is fucking bullshit." He spat out. "I'm outta here."

"Zaku…" Dosu started.

"Shut up." He shot back. "I'm not going to tell anyone about this, so don't worry. I'm not a snitch." Without another word he jumped onto the rooftops above, running back towards the Sounds quarters.

Kin looked at Dosu, who was watching the spot where Zaku had been standing. "Do you really think…?"

"As I said, I am not sure…" He turned to look at her. "But I intend to find out."

* * *

Early next morning Dosu silently moved through a building not too far from the Sounds quarters. It was the same building were he had been using his technique to listen in on Orochimaru the past few weeks. Well, week anyway. It had taken him some time to get the technique down just right.

He turned a corner and slid into a storage room, apparently used to hold old junk that someone just didn't want to throw away. This whole building seemed to just be used for storage, and in his time here Dosu hadn't seen anyone entering the place.

Closing the door behind him Dosu walked over a few boxes and other objects to the far wall, opening the single window in the room. This place was suited his needs well. It was quite, no one was around to bother him, and this room's window pointed directly at Sounds quarters allowing him to listen in more easily.

Repeating the process he had been going over the past month he began removing the bandages wrapped around his head. Unfortunately he would need both ears uncovered for maximum efficiency, no matter how much it made him uncomfortable. After he finished with that he sat down in a spot he had cleared off so that nothing dangerous was around him, keeping him safe from most harm.

Finally he removed a piece of wood from his pack. The small, tubular wood piece was wrapped in leather and had pieces of string tied to both ends. He put the piece in his mouth and tied the strings around his head to make sure it stood in place. It wouldn't do if he bit his tongue off and bled to death.

Dosu hadn't been entirely truthful when he told his teammates about his technique. The facts about it were true enough, but the reason he had never told anyone about was because he was afraid Orochimaru would have made him use it too often.

It was actually quite a dangerous technique. When he shut off his other senses he was losing valuable information especially the sense of touch. Without it he felt no pain, so he could seriously injure himself and never know until it was too late, hence the reason for the mouthpiece.

Also, it was a major drain on his chakra and stamina, which was why he had been returning to his room every night so tired and worn. It was also a huge strain on his eardrums. Without his chakra to strengthen and protect them, they would have easily been destroyed from the technique.

But desperate time called for desperate measures, and he needed to figure out exactly what Orochimaru was planning before the exams started up again.

Taking in a breath and sitting cross-legged on the floor, Dosu began the long and difficult process of shutting down his other senses. It would take a least and hour, and within that time he would close off nerve signals being sent to his brain by his other senses, effectively cutting them off. It had taken him many months of training back in the Village of Sound to figure out how to do that.

About forty-five minutes later he felt the first sign of success. The dusty smell of the room slowly faded away, followed by the leathery taste in his mouth disappearing. Next came his eyesight and finally the feeling of his legs against the floor disappeared, and soon all he could sense was the sound of himself breathing.

"_Now for the hard part…"_

Carefully, Dosu began moving more chakra into his ears, getting ready to strengthen them to levels they were not meant to go. It would happen fast so he would have to brace himself.

Another second later and Dosu could hear everything.

The footsteps of the man walking past the building.

The bird flapping its wings overhead.

The dog barking in the distance.

The fly buzzing in the next room.

Everything in his range was available to his ears.

To anyone watching it would have looked like Dosu had gone into a seizure as his body twitched violently. It wasn't that he was in any pain mind you; it was just that his brain was having trouble with the information overload it was receiving.

Now it was time for the hard part, picking out certain sounds over other ones. It had taken him even longer to figure out how to do this, but it had been worth it. Slowly his mind picked out the unwanted noise, pushing it into the background looking for his target. Eventually he had narrowed down his focus to the Sounds quarters, the rest of the area buzzing in the background.

He could hear a something sharp being thrown through the air and piercing the wall in their room. Judging from the sound of their footsteps and way of breathing he knew it was Kin. Outside their room someone was walking back and forth, muttering under their breath although for Dosu it came in loud in clear. From the voice and the way they cursed he could tell it was Zaku.

He listened in one the rest of the house, over the tiny creaks and groans of the building settling until he heard the voice he had been searching for on the bottom floor of the building.

It was a small room with one door and no windows. A single light bulb hummed on the ceiling as moths flapped their tiny wings flying around the light source. Orochimaru was talking with someone, finalizing his plans for Konoha. Dosu recognized the other voice as that of Kabuto, that medic-nin that they had met.

They continued talking for fifteen minutes while Dosu listening carefully, drowning out all other sounds. They went over how and when they would attack, making sure everything was in order. They also talked a bit about Gaara, and from what they said Dosu was amazed he made it out of his fight with him relatively unscathed. Finally, the moment he had been waiting for arrived.

"...the old fool won't see it coming until it is too late." Orochimaru said, his voice seeming to radiate with pleasure.

"And what of the genin?"

"Ahh yes, I almost forgot. They of course will be an essential part in my fight against the Hokage. Of course, I'll need you to get them ready for me."

"Tonight then?"

"Yes. Won't they be pleased to find out there going to fight by my side?" Orochimaru let out a small chuckle, and Dosu imagined the snake-mans grin growing wider. "And don't worry about repairing Zaku arms; it won't make any difference for the sacrifice."

"Of course Orochima-"

Dosu did not hear the rest however because he had blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Quickly and quietly the trio made there way through the forest, jumping through the treetops as fast as there legs could take

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. Hi, Inner Neji, Insanity rise, and SaiyanWarrior200. You guys are great!

* * *

Chap 2: The Truth Revealed! Escape form Konoha!

_In a small, insignificant town somewhere in the Fire Country a small boy walked through the dark streets, his only light to guide him was that coming from the moon. In one arm he carried a meager piece of bread, the only thing he was able to purchase at the shop with the small amount of money he had. His other hand was busy covering the right half of his face._

_He continued his trek home for the night, occasionally walking by someone who would turn their head away in disgust. He was used to that._

_The sound of laughter filled his ears and he froze. Turning around to follow the source he saw across the street another boy around his age, laughing and holding on to his mothers arm while she carried a bag full of food, dinner for their family. They wouldn't go hungry that night._

_His visible eye narrowed at the boy, filled with jealousy. Why couldn't he have that? _

_He turned away from the scene, picking up speed. At least he still had his precious item. Something no one else had, something that belonged to him alone. He turned the corner into the alleyway, the place where he slept and hid his treasure during the day. He stopped._

_Someone one was there._

_In the shadows of the alley he could see someone lifting up his fur, his treasure. They ran there grubby fingers through the white fur, surprisingly clean for something found hidden in the garbage. The boy didn't think, he just dropped his bread and attacked._

_He caught him off guard, making him drop the fur and cry out in surprise. The man was almost twice as big as the small boy, but that didn't matter. As soon as they hit the ground he started hitting, kicking, biting, anything to lash out on the thief. Eventually the bigger man threw the boy off him and into the wall, getting to his feet and running off deciding it wasn't worth it._

_The small boy looked up weakly, seeing his fur lying on the ground. It was still his, and no one else could have it. He crawled over to it, running his hands through it and resting his head on the soft fur._

"_That was nice." _

_He sat up immediately, his right hand unconsciously covering his face. He looked up in shock to see a man staring back down at him, a man who radiated power._

_He stood tall, a beige robe covering his body. His skin was unnaturally pale and his eyes…his eyes pierced the boy like they were staring into his soul._

_His pale skin reflected in the moonlight as he looked down at him with his snake-like eyes. "You have potential boy. If you follow me, I can make you stronger. I can make it so people won't take anything from you again."_

_The boy stared into the snake mans eyes, his words striking a cord deep within his young heart, and nodded._

_The snake man smiled and turned, his robe flowing as he walked away. Getting to his feet the boy picked up his fur, carrying it on his back as he ran to follow the man._

* * *

Dosu's eye flickered open as he regained consciousness, which greeted him with blurred vision and a headache. With a groan he lifted himself up from the cold floor and onto his knees, putting his hand up against his aching head.

"_Must have blacked out under the stress…"_

Dosu looked around, seeing his vision slowly returning to normal. He started moving around, testing his other senses. Seemed all were accounted for.

His hand felt something sticky on the side of his head, and he brought it back surprised to see blood on his fingers. Apparently his ears had been bleeding.

"_Probably shouldn't do that again for awhile."_

He got back to his feet and took out his mouthpiece, looking out the window as he did. By the looks of things the sun was beginning to set, so he had been out for quite awhile. Putting his mouthpiece away and taking out his bandages Dosu began to go over what he had learned as he calmly re-wrapped his head.

So Orochimaru planned to use him as a sacrifice.

We would see about that.

He soon finished his task with the bandages; being careful to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and began to go over his options.

The safest course of action would be to flee Konoha immediately. While Dosu was certainly upset with Orochimaru's actions, he wasn't stupid. To go up against the legendary Sannin would be asking for death.

However…

Even if he could not hurt the snakes directly, it would be possible to make life more difficult for him. Even if he escaped, Orochimaru would still have two more sacrifices left, so it would probably make little difference.

Dosu looked out the window. Night would be falling soon so that meant Kabuto would soon be fulfilling his orders, which gave him only a little time to act.

Stretching out his muscles and double checking his supplies, Dosu made his way out of the storage building, having made his decision.

* * *

Another needle sliced through the air towards its target, a painting of Konoha that was hanging on the wall, landing right between the eyes of the third. Kin beamed with pride at her improving accuracy, no one would ever get the drop on her again.

Kin walked over and pulled the needle and various others from the (now ruined) painting, ready to take a break. As she started putting away her weapons, she could hear a muttered "finally" coming from Zaku, sitting on his bed just a few feet away.

"I'm sorry, was I bothering you?" She said sweetly to Zaku, the sarcasm in her voice not lost on the boy.

Zaku snorted. "That damn 'thunk' every time your needles hit the wall was getting on my nerves."

Kin let out a sigh; she really didn't feel like arguing with him right now. Turning her back to him she walked over to the window, looking out into the streets of Konoha. The sun was just finishing setting, the bit of light remaining illuminating the village in an orange glow. It didn't look that bad really.

Now that her mind was no longer focused on training however, it wasn't long before her thoughts drifted back to what Dosu had said the other day. He had raised some good points, but she really didn't like thinking about it. Orochimaru-sama had taken her in when no one else would, given her a home, a purpose…

Still, it was hard to deny that he wasn't exactly a…caring person.

"Hey Zaku?"

"Eh?"

"Have you…thought about what Dosu said earlier?" She asked, keeping her eyes out the window.

"Who gives a crap about what the bandage-freak had to say? It was just bullshit."

Kin turned to face him. "Yeah but…"

"I said it was bullshit!" Zaku shouted, standing up and looking pissed. "He's full of crap and you're an idiot if you think otherwise!"

Kin glared back at him. "You know, it's not exactly smart to insult someone with your arms still like that."

"I don't need arms against a weakling like you."

Before Kin could get a retort or a needle in, their fight was once again interrupted by Dosu as he crawled in through the window.

Kin looked over at him unsure as to how to address him. She hadn't seen him since their discussion yesterday, and she had been wondering what he was doing. "Dosu…"

Dosu raised his hand to silence her, before gesturing towards the door. Both Zaku and Kin turned their attention behind, and soon they heard the footsteps walking down the hallway just outside. Soon enough the door opened, revealing a smiling Kabuto carrying a tray with three glasses with some kind of liquid in them

"Ah, good to see you're all here," He said, closing the door behind him. "Zaku, Orochimaru-sama has said it is time to fix those arms of yours."

Zaku's smirked as he got up from the bed, he had been waiting for this. Finally, after a month of waiting, of tolerating the pain, of walking past Orochimaru in the hallway only to hear "Kabuto will get to them soon," it was going to happen. As soon as he had his arms back he knew a few people he was going to enjoy meeting up with again.

Dosu looked to the tray in Kabutos hands. "What are the drinks for?"

Kabuto looked back at him. "It's something I came up with. It will help Zaku relax during the process, and is designed to improve ones health."

"There are three glasses." Dosu noted.

Kabuto nodded. "Yes. I thought you two might not mind having some yourself. It will help you sleep better tonight as well as being good for you."

"Ah." Dosu replied. "I understand."

Dosu shocked everyone a second later by flying across the room, aiming his fist for Kabuto's face. Caught off guard, the medic-nin was just able to dodge the physical blow, but couldn't avoid the sound waves that followed.

The glasses shattered in midair spilling the contents to the floor, followed by Kabuto as he fell to his knees vomiting. Kin and Zaku just looked on in shock.

"Dosu!" Zaku shouted. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I heard Orochimaru and Kabuto talking this mourning." Dosu replied calmly, not taking his eyes off the medic-nin. "He is not here to fix your arms Zaku."

Zaku's breath caught in his throat. "What…what are you talking about?"

"What I mean is he was sent here to get us all ready to be sacrifices for Orochimaru's plan."

Kin's mouth opened in a gasp and Zaku just glared at Dosu, his teeth clenched in anger.

"That's impossible!" Zaku shouted. "Orochimaru-sama would never…!"

"So you heard huh?"

All eyes were on him as Kabuto slowly rose back up, pushing his glasses back into place as a few broken shards of glass fell from the frame.

"So…what Dosu said is…" Kin managed to get out.

Kabuto smirked. "True? Yeah, you guys aren't really worth much else to him at this point."

Dosu took a step backwards, growing somewhat concerned with the situation. _"He was able to recover from my attack this quickly? Who is this guy?"_

"NO!" Zaku ran forward past Dosu, jumping into the air in an attempt to kick Kabuto's head off his shoulders. "You're lying!"

Kabuto easily dodged the attack and Zaku landed in front of him, and quickly sent Zaku flying back into the wall with a well-aimed punch in the chest. Kin and Dosu watched as he body hit the wall and fell to the floor, not getting back up.

Dosu turned his head back to Kabuto. This was not good. This man was stronger than he had been led to believe.

"This would go much easier for everyone if you guys just accepted this." Kabuto said, drawing a kunai from his pouch. "You guys should be happy. This is what you wanted right? To serve Orochimaru with all you had?"

Dosu glanced back at his teammates. Kin looked nervous but was still drawing out a few needles. Zaku was apparently still conscious, but looked as though he was about to have a nervous breakdown. As it stood they might have a chance against this guy, but Dosu had been looking for a quick escape, not a drawn out confrontation.

Dosu sighed; he should have just taken off by himself when he had the chance.

His own face unreadable as always, Dosu looked back at Kabuto. "Zaku, Kin."

Both ninja looked up at him.

"The window. Now."

Dosu jumped forward once again, his arm ready to unleash another attack. Only this time instead of aiming directly for Kabuto, he aimed below him. Kin, recognizing his intentions, grabbed Zaku by the sleeve and dragged him quickly to his feet pulling him towards the open window.

Dosu's fist struck the floor and released a wave of sound into the wooden floorboards, and with a violent lurch the wood splintered into a million pieces underneath Kabuto. The splintered wood fell to the floor below with a loud crash taking the medic-nin with it.

Dosu jumped back in time before the floor beneath him collapsed and followed Zaku and Kin out the window onto the streets below, landing safely next to them. Zaku was staring at the ground, a distant look in his face. However, it was Kin's worried look into the air that caught Dosu's attention.

Just a few seconds behind them they saw Kabuto jumping out the window, landing a few feet away from them and looking no worse for wear and still smiling that shit-eating grin of his.

"Your more resourceful than I thought, I'll give you that." Kabuto said, brushing a little dirt off his shoulder. "But I think we all know how this is going to end."

Kin replied by sending a few needles in his direction, which Kabuto skillfully dodged, he even managed to catch one and began twirling it around between his fingers tauntingly. Not one to take such an insult lying down she readied another batch of needles, only to be stopped when Dosu raised his arm in front of her, drawing back his sleeve once more.

"That will not be necessary Kin." Dosu said to her.

Kabuto didn't look impressed. "Don't expect that little sound trick of yours to work again. I'm ready for it this time."

Dosu said nothing and stood perfectly still, his arm raised in the air. Slowly he began spinning his arm around, issuing a small siren-like noise from his speaker. His arm began to spin faster and the faster he spun the louder the noise got.

Kabuto watched the display warily, not wanting to risk getting too close. He kept his footing and kept his eyes on the surrounding; trying to make out any visible changes from whatever trick Dosu was trying to pull.

The noise was apparently at its peak now, the air going through the speaker and coming out as a loud screeching noise. Kin and Zaku, being so close to the source, covered their ear or at least, Zaku tried too.

Everything quieted as Dosu's arm slowed down, coming to a complete stop and falling to his side again, the sleeve once again covering it. However, after all that no one could see and visible sign of what Dosu had been trying to do.

"Was that it?" Kabuto asked, clearing out his ear with his finger. "Was that supposed to do something?"

"Not really." Dosu answered. "It was just a loud noise. One of the first things I learned while training to control the sound waves from my arm. Besides being loud and annoying it really had no other purpose."

Kabuto looked confused. "I don't understand."

"However," Dosu continued, "Such a loud noise would probably attract the attention of Konoha, and I would imagine it wouldn't be very long before some of its ninja's come to investigate." Dosu watched at Kabuto's eyes widened. "Wouldn't they be surprised to find you hear fighting with a bunch of sound genin? In fact…"Dosu brought his hand up to his ear for emphasis. "I think I hear them now."

The smile on Kabuto's face finnaly fell. "Orochimaru isn't going to like this."

"You tell him we're through with him," Dosu calmly replied. "We're leaving. Anything between him and Konoha is no longer our concern.

Kabuto glared at Dosu, his displeasure at being bested by such a low-level ninja evident on his face. With a quick glance over his shoulder for Leaf-nin he took off, deciding it was just not worth it to continue this anymore.

Dosu looked back at his teammates, who were watching him with a mix of awe and surprise. "I think it's time we left."

* * *

Quickly and quietly the trio made there way through the forest, jumping through the treetops as fast as there legs could take them. They really had little idea of were they were going, only that it was away from Konoha and Orochimaru. Dosu lead the way with Kin following close by. Zaku was lagging behind, his injured arms making it difficult for him to properly balance himself for each leap from tree to tree.

They continued like this for hours, occasionally changing directions to throw off anyone who may try to follow them. It was a little after midnight when they were forced to stop to rest and let Zaku catch up.

Kin leaned back against a tree while Dosu remained in the treetops, inspecting the surrounding area making sure they didn't have any unwanted company. Zaku soon joined them and immediately dropped to the ground to rest, the pain in his arms from all this movement finally getting to him.

Dosu landed in front of them, his silence telling them the coast was clear and it was safe to rest.

The trio sat there in silence, none of them with any idea of what could be said given the situation. Kin and Zaku were still wrapping there brains around what happened, just now having the time to actually think about it. The only one who had really accepted the situation was Dosu, but even he had a little trouble with it.

"It fucking cold out here."

Leave it to Zaku to so eloquently break the silence.

Dosu got to his feet again and walked out into the darkness, returning some time later with an armful of sticks and dumped them in the middle of the group. Kin pulled out a set of matches while Dosu got the kindling set up right, and Zaku kicked the occasional loose stick back into place. Within a few minutes they had a fire going, large enough to keep them warm in the cold night air.

The light from the fire reflected off their faces, revealing the lost expressions of Kin and Zaku, while Dosu's face remained hidden by bandages. Dozens of thoughts were running through their heads at that moment. It wasn't until Zaku noticed the light reflecting off Kin's Sound forehead protector that he finally snapped.

"Fuck."

Dosu sighed, he knew this was coming.

"Fuck, what the hell happened?!" Zaku eyes travailed between Kin and Dosu, as if he expected one of them to have the answer.

"Zaku calm down."

"No you shut up Dosu! We trained under him for years how the fuck could he just….how could he just…?"

"Betray us?"

Kin and Zaku both shot angry glares towards the ground. They knew it was true; they just didn't want it to be.

"Whether you wish to admit or not, Orochimaru has forsaken us. Not that surprising really after what he has taught us. Could we really have expected anything less after failing?"

Dosu reached behind his head and untied his forehead protector, holding it out in front of him. "As of now, we are no longer part of his village." Releasing his hold on it the symbol of their old village fell into the fire, the cloth instantly going up in flames. Dosu watched as the flame engulfed that which had been a part of for so long, and hoped neither of them had noticed his hesitation before dropping it.

Kin watched as it burned, the fire reflecting the anger in her own eyes. With a snarl she reached back and undid her own forehead protector and threw it into the flame. The metals clinked against each other as it landed.

All eye turned to Zaku, who just kept his gaze on the fire. Out of all of them, Zaku was the one feeling the most betrayed .Orochimaru had been the first person to ever treat him like he was worth anything, and now he was learning it was all a lie. "Maybe Kabuto acting on his own! I mean, if we went back…"

Dosu wasn't about to let him finish. "Zaku, understand this: if you return to Konoha you will be killed. Orochimaru does not care for us, I doubt he ever did. You need to accept that."

Zaku looked back down into the flames, watching the sound symbols of his teammates burning away.

"Also…" Dosu said, staring Zaku straight in the eye. "Even if you wanted to, you could not go back to him. I would kill you before I'd allow that to happen."

Zaku let out a weak laugh. That should be expected form his "teammates". Couldn't let him go back and reveal where they were heading now could they. Loyalty only ran so far between Sound shinobi.

Dosu wasn't going to wait forever. "Well?"

Zaku didn't meet his eyes. "I…can't."

Kin got to her feet, glaring at Zaku in disbelief over his stupidity "You pathetic little worm! How can you still remain loyal to that snake after what he did to us! You were there or did you have your head stuck up your ass the whole time?!" She came close to reaching over and strangling him, the only thing stopping her was the fear that if she got to close he might notice the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

Zaku looked up at her. "No…I mean I _can't_."

Kin looked back at him confused before realization dawned on her. "Oh for the love of…"

Reaching down herself Kin yanked Zaku's forehead protector and threw it into the fire sending sparks flying into the air. The fire cracked and sparked as their ties to the Hidden Village of Sound burned away.

They all watched silently for the next few minutes, the metal in the flames reflecting against them as if trying to call them back.

Zaku was the first to say anything. "You guys realize those things are made of metal right? They're not going to burn."

"It's supposed to be symbolic jackass." Kin growled.

"Enough." Dosu interjected, getting to his feet again. "We should get some sleep; I'll take first watch for tonight. We'll talk about what we will do next in the mourning."

Kin and Zaku nodded and Dosu took off for the treetops again. Kin lay back against the tree and closed her eyes, while Zaku remained sitting up and staring at the fire. It would be some time before anyone got any sleep that night.

* * *

I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review to tell me what you thought about it. Just press the little button down there…


	3. Chapter 3

Here's to everyone who's reviewed the last chapter! SaiyanWarrior200, Joe Stoshack, Hi, Insanity rise, Ryoga's best friend, Aisuma, Lexa1990, Specter Von Baren, doryishness, Tefa, Xeno the Hedgehog, De Code Master, Chrosis, and flamecat! Whew, you guys kick ass!

So here's the next chapter. Sorry for the wait.

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

**Zaku's Lament: A Call for Arms**

_A scream tour threw the walls of the underground lair, echoing off the stone walls and sending a shiver through the less hardened members of the Hidden Village of Sound. If one were to follow the screams through the winding passages they would find themselves standing in a dark room, a pale mockery of a hospital ward._

_The tiled floor carries blood stains left over from former patients; one couldn't take more than a few steps with out their foot landing on one. Medical equipment lined the walls, along with several devices that looked more akin to a torture chamber. Of course, to the room's current patient, there was little deference between the two._

_A body lay on the center table, a lamp similar to the one found in a dentist's office, shined over him, the only light source in the room. Underneath the table lay a bucket for collecting blood, although it didn't stop the red fluid from getting everywhere else on the floor._

"_Well that's one down and one to go. How do you feel Zaku?" Orochimaru calmly asked as he placed a bloody a circular saw on the tray next to him, admiring his handiwork._

_Zaku bit back another scream as he looked down at his left arm, his eyes widening once again as he looked at his now mutilated limb._

_His entire arms had been sliced open, starting from his palm all the way up to his shoulder, in order for Orochimaru to insert his weapon into his body. Now it lay there unmoving with stitches running up along the entire length. It was a gruesome sight, although Orochimaru had promised it would not scar._

_But god did it hurt. Orochimaru-sama prided himself in having the latest in medical and scientific equipment in his labs for his "experiments". Everything he needed for such an operation was at his fingertips, the only thing he had never put high on his list for supplies was anesthetic, and so Zaku had gone through most of the operation feeling almost everything. If not for the leather straps holding him down he would have thrown himself off the table._

_Orochimaru traced the stitches with his finger quite pleased with how everything went. "Well, I suppose we'll let this arm of yours heal for now Zaku. Don't want to overexert my favorite pupil do we?" _

_Zaku gritted his teeth, forcing himself to ignore the pain and look Orochimaru square in the eye. "No...keep going…I can take it…" _

_Orochimaru smiled. "Are you sure Zaku? The pain could drive you mad."_

"_JUST DO IT!" Zaku yelled out, shutting his eyes and tearing his gaze away from Orochimaru as the pain throbbed through his arm_

_Orochimaru frowned at the demand. If there was one thing he did not like, if was being ordered to do anything. Zaku was lucky that he was necessary for the sannin's plans. Of course, "lucky" might be stretching it a bit. His smile returning to his face, Orochimaru moved to the other side of the table, bringing the bucket around with him._

"_Alright then." he flicked a switch and the circular saw starting spinning with a horrible whirring noise. "Let's begin."_

_Once again screams tore through the underground passages._

* * *

A jab to Zakus side woke him out of his sleep. With a groan Zaku rose up from the ground, seeing Kin had just kicked him in the side to wake him.

"Come' on, it's time to get up."

"Yeah, yeah." Zaku didn't really mind being woken up for once. He never liked having one of those kinds of dreams.

With a yawn Zaku stood up and started stretching his legs. Kin, seeing that he wasn't about to go back to sleep went back to combing her hair with the brush she always carried with her. Dosu meanwhile was busy burying the remains of their fire, trying to hide all evidence of them being here.

Dosu, satisfied with his work turned to Zaku. "Good to see you're finally awake. Now we can talk."

Kin's brushing halted for a second and she and Zaku exchanged glances. They weren't looking forward to this.

"So," Kin said breaking the silence, "what happens now?"

"As I see it," Dosu answered, "We have two things to worry about. The first being whether or not Konoha sends its people after us. If we are captured by them we will most likely be imprisoned and tortured for information on Orochimaru and Sound."

"Fuck." Zaku swore.

"The second," Dosu continued, "is if Orochimaru decides to come after us."

A shiver went through everyone's spine at that statement. Dosu didn't have to go into detail about _that_ threat.

"So what are we gonna do? Split up and go off on our own?" Zaku asked.

Dosu's eye moved between Zaku and Kin, as if thinking about something, before he closed it and let out a sigh as if in defeat. "No, I have considered this, and while splitting up may make it more difficult to track us; it would leave us individually vulnerable. While we may be able to hold our own against Konoha, I think we can agree that Sound ninja are something else entirely."

Inside, Dosu felt uneasy about the situation. While he could recognize Zaku and Kins abilities, he didn't particularly like working on a team. He preferred to act on his own. But he couldn't afford to act stupid with Orochimaru, not again.

"So I believe it would be in out best interests to remain a team until we can assure ourselves that we are no longer in any danger."

Of course someone was bound to bring up the most obvious problem with this arrangement, it just happened to be Kin. "What about Zaku? He can't exactly do much with his arms like that."

Dosu interrupted before Zaku got a chance to start swearing a Kin. "I thought about that. If a recall the layout of the land Orochimaru showed us, there are quite a few towns a villages not too far from here. One of them may have a competent doctor that can fix Zaku's arms."

"And if there isn't?" Kin asked.

Dosu just stared back at Kin, his one eye boring into her as if to say "what do you think?"

Zaku of course didn't need to think about what would happen if his arms didn't get fixed: he'd be dead weight. And as they'd all learned in Sound, dead weight had to be cut off.

Zaku got to his feet, feeling Kin and Dosu's eyes on him. "Well what are you looking at? Let's get going."

Dosu's eye lingered for a second or two before he nodded and got to his feet himself; turning to run in a direction that the other two could only assume was the right one. Zaku made sure he kept up this time, not allowing himself to fall behind for a second.

"_I'm not going to be dead weight."_

* * *

Not much was said within the next five hours. The trio made there way through the forest as fast as possible, which for ninja's was pretty fast. Zaku still served to slow them down a bit however, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Kin.

"Dammit Zaku, could you hurry up?"

Zaku sneered at Kins cutting remark. Apparently she couldn't think of anything better to do than gripe about him being a burden.

"I don't know Kin; do you think you could stop being a bitch?" He shot back.

"Why you…!" Kin almost finished her thought when she noticed something odd about Zaku. "Hey…you face protectors."

"What about them?"

"There gone."

Zaku stared back at her, confused as to how she had missed it, and also wondering why the hell she brought it up now. "Well duh. They were held by my forehead protector, of course they're gone. You just noticed?"

In truth Kin hadn't noticed and now looking back at him found it a little strange to see him without them. His hair still was still stuck up in that forever messy look, but still it was odd seeing his face uncovered by the protectors.

"You look different without them." Kin commented before turning her face forward again.

Zaku looked back at her, shrugging it of after a minute. _"Girls…"_

The trees eventually began to become less dense and ground more walked on, signaling they were approaching civilization. Within a few minutes they could make out another village, smaller than Konoha but by no means tiny.

Dosu signaled them to stop and they all jumped down from the trees, landing within a few feet of each other.

"You think they got a good doctor there?" Kin asked, squinting a bit to try and make it out better.

Dosu shrugged. "It's possible."

Zaku stared off at the various homes and buildings of various sizes. "So we just going to walk in there and start asking around?"

Nodding, Dosu turned back to them. "Yes. We only left yesterday so it is unlikely that they would be searching for us if they even plan too. However it would be in our best interest to remain inconspicuous."

Zaku and Kin gave him a pair of odd looks.

"What?" Dosu asked, staring back at them

* * *

From high atop a rooftop Dosu watched as Zaku and Kin went around the town asking about a hospital of some kind. Like it was his fault he wasn't that inconspicuous. In his opinion it would have been more suspicious if someone saw him hiding on the rooftops. Not that he would let that happen.

He watched as the other two walked out of a restaurant, Kin running her hand through her hair. That was the signal that they had found what they were looking for. Following them into an alleyway Dosu jumped down to meet them.

"Well?"

Zaku smiled. "We found out there's a medical facility here ran by some high-class doctor."

"Yeah," Kin continued, "some guy called Dr. Ikagawa."

Dosu nodded, pleased they were able to find a competent doctor on there first town. Things were looking up already.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Zaku yelled impatiently. He wasn't about to wait around when there was a chance to get his arms fixed. He had done enough of that already.

* * *

The doctor's office was a pretty nice looking place on the far side of town. From the looks of it the building also served as the mans house. It was more like a mansion than a medical facility, and if it weren't for the sign they never would have been able to guess otherwise.

Walking through the door in the front marked "Patients" the trio made their way inside, a small bell signaling there entrance. Inside was a waiting room, a well-sized room almost entirely white with a receptionist's desk at the opposite side next to another door. There were several pieces of nice furniture: an expensive looking couch with soft cushions, a hand-carved table next to it with an elegant lamp sitting atop, several well made chairs, along with a few works of art adorning the walls. Whoever this Dr. Ikagawa was he sure led a good life.

A sign on the desk read "Please wait for a nurse to see you." So they decided to wait, Kin and Zaku sitting down on opposite sides of the couch while Dosu took one of the chairs.

And they waited.

And waited,

And waited some more.

Eventually after what seemed like hours, the door next to the desk finally opened and out walked a woman in a nurse's uniform followed by a man in a rich-looking kimono. Bowing to the nurse the man turned to leave, giving the trio a look of disgust while walking past. Kin just frowned while Zaku tried to flick him off, cringing when his hand resisted against the movement.

"Hello, and what can I help you three with?" the nurse asked politely, though none of them missed the familiar look she carried. It was a look they all recognized, that of someone looking down at them but trying not to be too obvious about it.

Kin glared at the nurse as her eyes fell on the "nurse", immediately disgusted. She wore a nurse's uniform aright, but with the short skirt and tight top she looked more like a character from one of those "Icha Icha" books than a real nurse. Kin was beginning to feel she wasn't going to like this doctor very much.

Zaku on the other hand had a different opinion growing, and almost opened his mouth to voice it when Dosu spoke.

"Yes, we are here because of…"

"Oh my Goodness!" The nurse screamed, causing the three of them to jump. "What on earth happened to you?" She rushed over to Dosu and reached out to touch his bandages. "We'll have to get you to the emergency room immediately!"

Dosu caught her hands in his own before she got to close. "No, not me," He replied calmly, pushing the nurse's hands out of his face "Him."

The nurse followed Dosus pointing finger to see Zaku, noticing his arms. "Oh! Well then…we better get those looked at." She smiled embarrassedly, walking over to her desk for a notepad and pencil. "If you would walk this way please."

The trios followed the nurse through the door next to her desk and were led down a white hallway, passing several doors along the way. Eventually she stopped in front of a door with the words "Dr. Ikagawa" inscribed on it.

The nurse gently rapped in the door. "Doctor, your next patient has arrived."

"All right, bring him in." An older voice called from behind the door.

With a turn of the knob the nurse opened the door and gestured for Zaku to enter, smiling sweetly. When the Kin and Dosu tried to follow however she raised her arm to stop them.

"You two can stay in the waiting room while the doctor is looking at your friend."

Dosu raised his head to stare at the nurse with his one eye. "No. We will accompany him." It would be foolhardy to separate right now, especially with so many enemies potentially after them.

The nurse faltered a bit under the younger mans intense gaze, but tried to put up a brave front. "I'm sorry, but our policy is…"

"This is not open for discussion." Dosu brushed past her and into the room, followed by Kin who flashed the nurse an arrogant smirk.

It was exactly what one would expect from a Doctors office. A table for the patent to sit or lay down upon, a scale, cabinets and drawers filled with what one would assume were medical supplies, all surrounded by more white walls. Sitting comfortable in a chair was an old man with graying hair and glasses, reading over some files. He looked up the group and gave them a smile.

"All right then what seems to be the...dear God man what happened to your face?"

Dosu let out another sigh. "We're not here for me, we're here for him." He gestured to Zaku once more. This doctor really needed to work on his bedside manner.

Dr. Ikagawa coughed into his fist, obviously embarrassed. "Er, right of course. Now then what seems to be the trouble?"

Zaku stepped forward. "My arms need to get fixed."

"Thank you for being so specific." The doctor approached him and placed his palms on Zaku's arms, moving back when Zaku flinched. "Calm down son, I'm only checking them to see what's wrong."

Relenting, Zaku allowed the doctor to place his hands on his arms, running his chakra into them.

Ikagawa ran his chakra over the length of Zaku's arms, examining the wounds carefully. His eyes widened in surprise at what he found.

"Interesting…" the doctor said to himself, "you've got some interesting arms here boy."

"Yeah, thanks for noticing." Zaku said sarcastically. "Can you fix them or not?"

Ikagawa stepped back, sitting on his chair again and taking out a pencil and paper. "I believe I can. Of course I'll need more information on them before we proceed. But first things first: how do plan to pay for this?"

An awkward silence descended on the room.

"We…kind of don't have any money." Kin admitted reluctantly.

"I see." Dr. Ikagawa said, leaning back in his chair. "The nurse can show you out then."

"Wait a minute you sack of shit, if you think…"

Dosu placed his hand on Zaku's shoulder, keeping him from doing anything stupid. "What my friend means here doctor is there must be some other means of payment we can agree upon."

Ikagawa placed his hands behind his head, thinking it over. "Actually, I think there is. You three are ninja, correct?"

The trio exchanged looks; there really was no point in denying it.

"Thought so" Dr. Ikagawa said smugly. Getting off his chair the doctor opened a drawer and began to rummage through it. "Recently there has been a rash of bandit attacks in the surrounding forests. They've been attacking travelers and merchants, leaving them dead or wounded and taking anything of value. I didn't really care too much seeing as how it just brought me more business."

Kin snorted. She really didn't like this guy.

"But recently…ah here we are!" Smiling triumphantly the doctor pulled out a photograph from the drawer, revealing it to the trio to be a picture of an expensive looking vase with bright colors and a blue dragon painted on the side. "Recently the attacked a caravan carrying a priceless vase I had ordered specifically for my den. I was going to go to the trouble of hiring some over-priced ninja village to get it back but with you three here..."

"So all we have to do is get the vase back and you will fix his arms?" Dosu interrupted

"On the nose my friend."

Zaku frowned. "If you think we're just going to…"

"We'll do it." Dosu decided for them.

"Perfect!" Ikagawa exclaimed. "The nurse will show you a map of where they were last spotted. You get it back to me in one piece and you can consider those arms as good as new!"

Kin and Zaku shot a look at Dosu, who promptly ignored them as the nurse led them out the door.

* * *

"I still think we should have just beat him up and made him fix them." Zaku said once again as they traveled down the dirt road through the woods

"Ask yourself this question Zaku: Who would you rather have fixing your arms, a nervous doctor working under a knife or a calm and collected doctor working without any stress?"

Zaku couldn't think of a comeback for that one. As always Dosu was thinking ahead.

"Besides," Kin said, "he only said we have to return that vase of his. He never said anything about returning anything else the bandits stole."

Zaku smirked. "What? You wouldn't turn it over to the authorities?"

Kin returned that with a sly smile of her own, and Zaku let out a short laugh. Maybe this whole ordeal will work out for them.

Zaku picked up the pace a little bit so that he was right next to Dosu. "So you hear them yet?"

Dosu nodded. "I picked them up about five minutes ago. They've been following us."

"Not a ninja in the bunch," Kin added. "These guys could probably all be taken out by a single rookie."

"Pity, I was looking forward to venting some frustration." Dosu began to lift up his sleeve. "They will probably make there move in the next minute. Try to remember to leave one alive for questioning."

As if one cue a group of at least twenty bandits jumped out from behind the trees, coming at them from all sides with various swords, axes, and other sharp weapons. The trio barley so much as blinked before they struck back.

The bandits never had a chance. Not even one minute into the fight and Dosu alone had taken out eight of them, there bodies left twitching in the ground either in agony of death spasms. Kin was nimble dodging the swings of their weapons and landing needle after needle into her attackers. Many fell to the ground clutching their throats, trying to pull out the needle that had just pierced their wind pipe. Zaku, while unable to use his arms and subsequently also unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, was still putting up on hell of a fight just using his legs in taijutsu. After three minutes most of the bandits lay on the ground dead, while the rest of their comrades decided to make run for it. It would have been a smart move on their part had they done so in the beginning.

Dosu sleeve fell over his weapon as he watched the men fleeing for their lives. "Geeze, what a waste of time."

"I don't know about that, I had fun." Zaku said as he lifted his foot off one of the bandit's broken neck.

"Why, because you can only handle a bunch of weaklings?" Kin mocked, pulling out another of needles from another human pincushion.

"Screw you."

"Enough." Dosu said. "Kin, why don't you track down the rest of those bandits and begin 'questioning' them?"

"Yeah, alright." Kin continued pulling out needles from the bodies. There was no rush; those bandits couldn't get very far.

Zaku walked around corpses, looking over the sorry excuses for bandits. "Pfft, it's a wonder these guys were able to last so long on their own eh Dosu?"

Zaku looked up at Dosu when he didn't get a response. He seemed to be staring at the bodies, deep in thought.

"Dosu?"

The bandaged nin coked his head towards Zaku "Hmm?"

"What's up with you? You spaced out for a minute there."

"It was nothing, I was just…thinking about something."

"Uh-huh." Zaku was kind of used to this sort of behavior from his teammate. He had always been a weird one.

"You know Dosu, I…" Zaku didn't hear it coming until the last minute, the sound of chains rattling against each other and the feeling of blades piercing his skin.

Kin jumped back with Dosu, eying the attackers.

They stood on either side of Zaku. From there forehead protectors and breathing apparatuses they were obviously Kirigakure-nin. Oddly enough they had horns on their forehead protectors, the one on the left having two and the other having one. Combined with their ragged clothing and disheveled appearance, it seemed to give them a more demonic look.

The most noticeable thing about the two was the large metal gauntlet each wore on one hand. A chain, which was currently wrapped around Zaku, linked the two gauntlets together.

"Looks like he's number one." The one with the single horn announced.

"But he doesn't have to be." The double-horned one added before turning towards Dosu and Kin. "Who are you guys?"

"Just a few ninjas hired to kill you." Dosu answered.

The double horned one let out a raspy laugh from behind his mask. "Do you know who we are?"

"No one important?" Dosu asked.

"You would be wise not to piss us off." The single horn answered. "I am Meizu!"

"And I am Gozu!" the other answered, "Together we are the Demon Brothers, recently escaped from Kirigakure, a feat we are sure they still talk about."

"That's nice. May I ask that you release our teammate?" Dosu responded dryly.

"You killed all our men." Meizu said. "Perhaps we should kill this one for revenge?"

With those words the demon brother pulled the chains around a helpless Zaku tighter, causing him to let out a grunt of pain. Blood began to pour out of the wounds as the blades cut deeper into his flesh but no matter how deep they went Zaku didn't scream or beg; something that seemed to annoy the brothers.

"We might spare him IF you drop your weapons and surrender now." Gozu told them. "Of not we'll just kill him here and then move on to you two."

Silence filled the scene, save for the raspy breathing coming from the brothers masks. Zaku watched his teammates intensely, waiting to see what they would do. Kin's hands hovered over her weapons pouch while Dosu slowly raised his sleeve to reveal his melody arm

"We can't do that." Dosu replied, more truth to his words than the Demon Brothers knew. "In fact, go ahead and kill him if you want. You would actually be saving us a trip back."

Kin and Zaku both stared wide-eyed at Dosu, shocked by what he was saying. The Demon Brothers were also surprised, though apparently not as much.

"Are we supposed to believe you don't care about your own teammate?" Gozu asked.

Dosu single eye stared back at the brother. "I meant what I said. Kill him or don't. It makes little difference."

"What the fuck?! Dosu what the hell are you saying?!" Zaku shouted. He would have jumped out and grabbed him if he wasn't chained up.

"Oh really? Then you don't mind if we do this?" With Meizu's words once again tightened their pull causing Zaku's eyes to widen and his teeth to clench in pain. But even through all this Dosu expression didn't change.

"I'm growing tired of this." Dosu turned his head towards his other teammate. "Kin, show them we're serious."

Kin stared at Dosu, not sure about what to do. It wasn't like she was against killing, but Zaku was one of them! Her hand hesitated over her pouch as she turned her head to look at Zaku, she could see him staring right back at her, his eyes screaming at her "Don't even think about."

"Kin." Dosu said sternly, his eye narrowing at her. "Use those needles of yours on Zaku."

Her ears twitched at his last words and Kin smiled. Now she understood.

With the speed and grace honed from years of training Kin reached into her pouch and pulled out her needles, and with a flick of her wrists sent a small barrage of the projectiles toward Zaku.

The Demon Brothers didn't move an inch as the needles pierced their captives flesh. In fact the only movement they did make was the unseen smiles hidden beneath their masks.

Zaku gritted his teeth harder as he felt the needles hit their marks, finding new homes in his shoulders and legs, one even grazing his ear. Fuck, when he got out of this he was going to kill all of them, arms or no arms he was going to…

…wait a minute. Kin never misses. Why the hell would one of her needles only graze his ear?

"Heh, guess we misjudged you." Gozu laughed.

"Yeah." Meizu added. "Guess we won't need this one after all."

The brother's metal arms froze in midair before they had a chance to carry out their threat. Their eyes grew wide and their bodies started twitching, as though someone had dumped a bucket of freezing water on them.

"You were right to say you misjudged us." Dosu said a hint of amusement in his voice.

"What…what is this…!" Gozu managed to say as his body began to give out on him.

"Take a look behind you." Kin told him.

The Demon Brothers managed to turn their heads to look behind them. There, on a tree just a few feet a way, were two needles with little bells attached. The bells jingled back and forth, moved by the almost invisible strings connecting them to their master.

"It a little trick of my own." Kin remarked with a grin. "I send my chakra through the string and into the bells, and when they ring it releases a paralyzing genjutsu." The wiggled the fingers on her left hand, the ones tied to the bells, for emphasis. "You were so distracted by the needles hitting Zaku you overlooked the ones that missed him."

The bells let out another ring and Gozu and Meizu's bodies started to sway as the genjutsu began to affect their mind, and with them the chain around Zaku loosened leaving enough slack for him to move again.

Kin's smile grew. "And of course the jutsu only effects who I want it to affect, so Zaku you can escape now."

He didn't need any prompting. With a bit of struggling the brothers were helpless to fight against Zaku as he loosened up the grip of the chains enough so that they fell off, rattling as they hit the ground. The brothers stared wide eyed at their now-free hostage, who now looked down at them with an intense glare.

"You shouldn't have pissed me off."

Zaku's foot suddenly shot up from the ground and planted itself into Gozu's chin, quickly followed by another kick to his brother's chest. Both mist nin hit the ground hard with a satisfying crunch.

Zaku turned his back to them and walked back to Dosu and Kin, the anger on his face as strong as when he looked at the brothers.

"Good to have you back Zaku." Dosu said, ignoring the glare being given to him.

"I suppose we need one alive then huh?" Kin remarked, trying to break the tension between them. "We still don't know where the vase is."

"You think we're finished?"

The trio looked up to see the Demon Brothers slowly getting back there feet, struggling to stand.

Kin sighed. "Didn't you learn the first time?" She flicked her fingers again, ringing the bells.

The brother faltered again, but regained there footing quickly. In a surprising move, they turned around and each grabbed one of the bells and crushed it underneath their gauntlets.

"What the hell?" Kin yelled.

"Hmm, they must have experience dealing with genjutsu." Dosu commented.

"That's not all we have experience with." Meizu shot back as the brothers started to create a series of seals.

"Hiding Mist Technique!" They exclaimed simultaneously.

The entire area suddenly became wrapped in a blinding fog, hiding the positions of the brothers. Their training kicking in the trio moved so they were all back to back, keeping an eye all around them.

The sound of chains clinging suddenly hit there ears. "Move it!" Zaku yelled.

Kin and Zaku both jumped out of the way, leaving Dosu who just stood there unmoving.

The brothers broke through the mist, there chain stretched between them as they approached their target. They were pleased to feel the chain hits it mark, and with ruthless efficiency began to ensnare their victim.

"Dosu!" Kin called out into the mist, unable to make out what was happening.

"This is over." Gozu said as they finished wrapping there victim, pulling the chain taught. However he was surprised to hear not the sound of ripping flesh, but the sound of metal scratching metal.

Dispelling the mist both bothers looked to see what had happened. To their shock they saw Dosu laying on the ground on his back, his melody arm extended in the air with the chains wrapped tightly around it.

"You are right, this is over." Dosu lifted his other arm hand to his melody arm, giving it a light flick. The sound waves reverberated in the device sending vibrations through the length of chain, which soon shattered under the pressure.

Meizu staggered backwards as the chain broke, and suddenly felt a barrage hit his back. In pain he turned to see Kin standing there smiling, but before he could act his face was reunited with Zaku's feet.

"Meizu!" Gozu watched his brother hit the ground, not getting back up again. He barred the claws of his gauntlet and ran to avenge him. "I'll kill you all!"

He was blocked by Dosu, who dodged the swipe of metal claws and with a quick movement landed a blow directly in the center of Gozu's chest with his fist.

Gozu flew backward, hitting a tree and coughing up blood. He felt some of his rips crack with that last blow, and before he had a chance to get back up Dosu hand grabbed his face and slammed it back into the tree. His eyes widened as he saw Dosu bring his other hand next to his melody arm.

"You two really didn't have any talent." With a simple flick of his finger, Dosu released a barrage of sound waves directly into Gozu's skull. The mist-nin struggled for a moment before he let out a dyeing gasp of agony, blood leaking out of his eye and ears.

"Geeze." Dosu let the corpse fall to the ground in a bloody mess, turning back to look at the others. "Is that one still alive?"

Kin checked Meizu's pulse. "Yeah, he's alive."

"Ah, that's good to hear." Dosu walked over to the other two, flicking a bit of blood off his fingers. "We'll need him for information."

Kin nodded and turned to Zaku, who she saw glaring daggers at Dosu. "Zaku?"

Dosu's head turned to Zaku, staring at him as if nothing was wrong. "Something you wish to say Zaku?"

"You got that right you bastard" Zaku spat venomously. "You almost got me killed back there.

"Oh is that all?" Dosu said nonchalantly.

"Is that all?" What the hell were thinking! Those two could have killed me!"

"They weren't going to kill you."

"Really? And how the hell do you know that?"

"Because I overheard them talking before they attacked" Dosu answered, bending down to see how alive Meizu really was. "They knew we were strong, so they were planning on holding you hostage to buy time. It seemed like a good plan to let them believe they were in control for the time being."

"You…you knew they were going to attack?" Kin asked, shocked at her teammates words.

"You BASTARD!" Zaku lunged at Dosu, his foot once again easily dodged.

"I don't see why you're so upset Zaku" Dosu said as he dodged another attack. "As I recall, you were just as willing to sacrifice Kin back in the Forest of Death for the sake of the mission."

"That was different! You knew what was coming!" Zaku yelled stepping back from his teammate, not noticing the look Kin gave him at his confession. "What the hell would you have done if they had actually killed me?"

"We would have killed them, taken their loot, and gone on to sell it in the next town removed of one more burden." Dosu eye narrowed at Zaku. "You should be grateful my planning kept you alive."

Zaku gritted his teeth in anger. "You…you..!"

"This argument is over." Dosu said dismissively, turning around to walk away from them.

"Don't you dare walk away from me! Hey!" Zaku could feel his temper being pushed to the limit. "Get back you hunchbacked SON OF A BITCH!"

Dosu suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Kin could feel the tension between the two suddenly rise significantly. She watched, her eye glancing between the two nervously. She didn't know why, but she felt as though Zaku had just made a huge mistake. When Dosu turned around, she saw her suspicions confirmed.

Now, in there few months of knowing each other Zaku had only seen Dosu lose his cool once, and that was when they were up against the Uchiha. However when Dosu turned around to face him Zaku saw something in his eye that almost scared him.

Dosu looked _angry_.

It happened so fast Zaku barley registered it before Dosu's hand found its way around his throat. He felt his back hit the ground hard, and when he looked up all he could see was Dosu staring back down him with a fire in his eye, his melody arm posed to smash Zaku's face in.

"Dosu STOP!" Kin yelled as she moved to hold back her teammate, but it was too late.

Zaku saw the arm descend, he heard the sound waves being released, and he felt something being destroyed under the attack. With all these things being brought into consideration, he was curious as to how he was still alive.

Turning his head to the side, Zaku saw Dosu's fist imbedded in the cracked earth just an inch away from his head.

Dosu released his grip on Zaku's neck and lifted his other hand out of the ground, flexing his fingers as he did so. Still on top of him, his one eye glared down at Zaku. "You really should watch what you say more often Zaku, it could one day be the death of you."

Getting back to his feet and leaving a shocked Zaku on the ground, Dosu turned to walk back into the woods, pausing for a moment to address Kin but not looking at her. "Kin, find out what you can from the survivor, and then meet back up with us."

Kin nodded and swallowed the lump that had developed in her throat. Dosu made no acknowledgment of her answer continued into the woods, disappearing into the trees.

Zaku and Kin let out a collective sigh, and Kin walked over to help Zaku stand. He brushed her off as he got to his feet.

"What the hell was that about?" He said bitterly. "That's guy crazy."

"Maybe he just didn't like you insulting him like that." She answered as she got to work dragging Meizu unconscious body towards a nearby tree.

"Feh! The bastard deserved it. He almost got me killed!"

"Is that really so different from something you might do?"

"What the hell is that…?" Zaku shut his mouth as he thought back to exchange of words Dosu and he had, and from the look Kin was giving him she was thinking about it to. "Aw shit. Kin, listen…"

She turned away from him, propping the body against the tree. "Why don't you go off with Dosu, I have work to do."

Zaku let out a curse and turned to leave. Screw both of them; he didn't give a damn anymore. He only needed to stick around with them until he got his arms fixed, then he could high-tail it to wherever he felt like.

He could here Kin pulling out a length of wire as he walked into the woods, stepping over the bodies of the bandits they'd slain. Even though he really didn't want to be around Dosu right now, he also REALLY didn't want to be around Kin when she was "working".

* * *

"Uh…my head…"

Meizu's eyes opened and he slowly lifted his head, hitting the back of it against a tree. He tried to lift his hand to his head, but for some reason found he couldn't move his arms. When he looked down he was shocked to see he was tied to a tree, his arms and legs bound to prevent him from using any jutsu whatsoever.

"Good to see you're awake."

Kin dropped down from the tree branches, twirling a kunai on her finger.

"Now then," she said walking closer to him. "You're going to tell me where you've hiding all the goods your gang's been stealing. We can make this quick and painless," she ran the kunai in the bark next to his head for emphasis, "or it can make it long and excruciating."

Meizu snorted putting on a brave front. Just who did this little girl think she was?

Kin returned his glare with a smile. "I recognize that look. Right now you're thinking about how I probably don't have the guts to torture somebody, and that you'll be able to last against me."

Miezu's eyes widened as her smile grow crueler, and he saw something in the glint of her eyes that worried him.

"Honestly though, I really hope you can last for awhile. I have a LOT of aggression to let out."

She pulled out a single needle from her pouch, and it wasn't long before Miezu was wishing that he and his brother's position were switched.

* * *

Dosu sat hunched over on a stump some distance away, staring of into the distance. A few feet away Zaku leaned against a tree, glaring daggers at Dosu's back.

A scream tore through the woods. They had been hearing them on and off over the past seven minutes, this one so far being the loudest. Zaku let out a shudder at the noise, the sound bringing up bad memories of his early genin days.

Dosu's head turned in the direction of the scream. "I must admit, Kin is certainly talented in this area."

Zaku didn't respond although inwardly he agreed with the statement. How the hell could Dosu act like nothing had just happened between them? God he was creepy.

The sound of leaves being crunched underfoot got their attention and they turned to see Kin, cleaning of a few of her needles with a piece of cloth as she approached. She had a small smile on her face, telling of her success.

"I got the exact location of their base, it a hidden cave not to far from here."

"You sure he was telling the truth?" Zaku asked her.

Kin flashed him a sly smile. "I'm sure."

Zaku shuddered while Dosu stepped forward. "Kin, you have something…" he told her, pointing towards his bandaged cheek.

"Huh? Oh…" Kin wiped the spot of blood on her cheek off with the cloth. How she was able to only get that much blood on her was anyone's guess.

"Well then, I suppose we should get going. Lead the way Kin." Dosu said as she finished cleaning.

Kin nodded and led them in the direction of the cave, the tension between the three keeping them all silent the entire way.

* * *

The tension between them seemed to fade when they approached the bandit hideout, meeting no resistance whatsoever as they approached the large boulder that apparently acted to hide the mouth of a cave.

"How much do you think they got in there?" Zaku said with a grin.

"Only one way to find out," Kin answered.

The two stepped back and let Dosu approach the large rock. In a single movement he pulled out his melody arm and slammed his fist into the stone. The boulder seemed to ripple for a fraction of a second before its entire being broke apart, collapsing in a pile of rocks and dust.

The trio carefully stepped inside, ready to take down any traps that happened to be in place. However, all caution was thrown out the window at the sight of the vast treasures the cave held.

A couple brown sacks, some small piles of cash, and the vase sitting in the corner.

"What the fuck is this shit?!" Zaku yelled, "I thought these guys where terrorizing the countryside or something!"

Kin walked over to one of the sack and checked the contents. "It's just some food and supplies. Nothing really high quality either."

"After seeing that pathetic display they put up, what should we have expected?" Dosu rubbed the back of his head, annoyed with himself for getting his hopes up. "Geeze, and here I was hoping for a break…"

Zaku kicked one of the food sacks, sending it flying across the cave. "Son of bitch! And after all we went through!"

"What are you complaining about Zaku?" Kin said as she grabbed the small handful of cash sitting on a table. "You're still getting your arms fixed out of this."

Zaku turned to swear at her, but stopped when he realized she was right. "Still pisses me of though," he muttered, kicking a small stone.

"Enough," Dosu ordered. "Grab whatever cash they have along with the vase. We can at least use that and some of the food here."

Zaku and Kin nodded, resigned to finish the job. Dosu picked up the vase himself, careful to avoid damaging it.

"_Now let's see if this doctor is all he's cracked up to be…"_

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

OK! New chapter time! Sorry for the delay, but I got really into working on another fanfiction, one I'm really excited about! It's called…

NARUTO ZOMBIES!

If you're a fan of horror or just an interesting story, go to my profile and check it out. Don't worry; I'm still working on this story too.

With that said, let me thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Chrosis, SaiyanWarrior200, Specter Von Baren, Xeno the Hedgehog, Lexa1990, Aisuma, Insanity rise, Samuel L. Mothafuggin Frollo, Crystal Inferno, Arashi-chan23, Ryoga's best friend, doryishness, Ralf Jones, The Check Mark, and t-fly!

This is just a thank you for reading and to let you know I deeply appreciate you taking the time to review.

Enough waiting, onward to the story!

Note: re-loaded chapter with corrections made by Specter Von Baren.

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

**Where we Stand; Tension among the Sound Trio!**

So there they were again in Dr. Ikagawas waiting room, waiting for the nurse to come with word on Zaku's operation.

Kin sat on the couch with a magazine for women. She didn't really have an interest in that sort of thing, but it was the only thing keeping her from launching a shuriken into that damn clock and its incessant ticking!

She looked up at the clock sitting on the wall above Dosu, the little hands moving slowly around its face to the sound of that damn ticking.

They had been sitting there for two hours waiting for word on Zaku and hadn't heard so much as a peep. It wouldn't have been too terrible if her company was a bit more talkative.

Kin looked over at Dosu, who sat completely still in the chair across from her. His eye was gently closed and she could hardly hear him breath, so she assumed he was meditating or some crap like that.

Kin let out a sigh. She was still getting used to the idea of being on the run, and even more so accepting who she would be traveling with. Back at the Village of Sound she had only worked a few times with Dosu and Zaku, and while they could function well as a team, they were far from being real teammates.

Kin tried to focus her attention back on her magazine. She turned the page and started reading an article on how long hair was out this season.

A moment later the clock had a shuriken embedded in its face.

Dosu heard the shattering of glass and opened his eye, looking up to see the clock was no longer working. "Was that really necessary?"

"Feh," Kin blew it off, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms. "How long is this thing supposed to take anyway? It feels like we've been waiting forever!"

"The doctor said it would take a few hours." Dosu noticed the crumpled magazine lying by Kins feet, the most likely culprit for her sudden temper.

Kin huffed and looked up at the broken clock, wishing she had thought that through a bit more. "Can't believe were going through all this trouble just to fix Zaku's arms."

"We were lucky to find a doctor willing to work so cheaply," Dosu told her as he closed his eye again. "If we hadn't, we would have been forced to kill him."

Kins eyes widened a bit in surprise. "You're kidding right?"

Dosu cracked his eye open to look at her. "No. We can't waste our time carrying dead weight around."

She could almost feel Dosu's stare boring into her, watching her for any sign of hesitation. Kin looked off to the side to avoid it. "No, we can't"

Dosu nodded and closed his eye, once again resuming his meditation. They did not speak again for the remainder of their wait.

* * *

"You may see your friend now."

The nurse ushered Kin and Dosu out of the waiting room and into one of the recovery rooms. They found Zaku lying unconscious on a bed, his body covered with a blanket except for his arms, and an I.V hooked up to him. From the looks of it the operation took a lot out of him.

"The operation was a complete success," Dr. Ikagawa said from behind them. "In about a week his arms should be completely functional again, although he will carry some nasty looking scars for awhile.""

Dosu looked over Zaku, taking note of the bandages that now covered his arms. "What of his 'enhancements,' doctor?"

Dr. Ikagawa rubbed his chin, a proud smirk on his face. "Now that was tricky. The tubes running through his arms were some kind of organic construct similar to bone, but more flexible. It would have been impossible to remove them given how deeply they were integrated into his system, and even if I could have it's unlikely he would have been able to lift his arms again."

"Get to the point," Dosu told him.

Ikagawa coughed nervously, "Yes, of course. Anyway I was able to fix them to a degree, although they still have various weak points along their frame. He will be able to use his attacks again, but he must be careful not to put too much power into his attacks less he wants to rip his arms apart."

Dosu nodded, "That is acceptable."

The doctor gazed down at Zaku's arm, "Whoever designed them was a genius. I would very much like to meet him."

"No, you wouldn't," Dosu told him.

The doctor shrugged. "Now I'll expect you out of here in the morning, otherwise I'll have to start charging. Come nurse." With a wave goodbye he turned to leave, his female companion following close behind.

Kin sneered at the doctors back. "Lousy cheapskate," she muttered to her self.

Kin walked closer to Zaku's sleeping form and looked him over. "Damn," she said, "he looks like crap."

"If he can fight then that's good enough," Dosu told her.

Kin rolled her eyes. "Yeah I guess." A smirk grew on her face and she looked at Dosu, "What do you think he'll say when he sees the scars under the bandages?"

Dosu shrugged, not really giving a damn. Looking around he gave the room a quick once over before turning to leave. "You stay with Zaku, I'm going out."

"Hey, what makes you think you can just leave me here?" Kin snapped at him. "And just where are you running off too?"

Dosu didn't look back at her, "Where I go is my own business. And I'm not forcing you to stay. Do what you want, I don't care." With that Dosus back disappeared out the door.

Kin let out a growl and ran after him. "Get back here!"

Dosu didn't slow down for Kin as she ran after him. In fact it seemed he was doing his best to ignore her. Of course Kin wasn't one to be ignored.

Coming up behind him she reached out for his shoulder, trying to get him to stop. The reaction was instantaneous; Dosu jerked away from her and would have smashed her across the face with his melody arm if she hadn't jumped back in time.

They stood like that for a minute, Dosu's eye burning a hole through Kin. "Touch me again, and I'll kill you."

Kin wanted to snap at him for that but held her tongue, knowing fully well that he meant it. "We need to talk."

"Then talk," Dosu told her.

Kin took in a deep breath, preparing herself. "Look, I know we're not exactly friends or anything…"

Dosu chuckled at that.

"…but," Kin continued, "I think if we're to survive on our own there need s to be some level of trust between us." She gestured towards the room where Zaku slept, "Zaku was nearly killed because of that stunt you pulled! You can't just pull crap like that if were going to be working together!"

Dosu stared at her, his eye unreadable as always. "So you want us all to play nice Kin? Three friends traveling together, against the world?"

Kin rolled her eyes, "That's not what I meant. All I'm saying is…"

Suddenly Dosu pulled out his melody arm and rushed forward, slamming his fist into the wall next to Kins head. A crater formed around Dosu's fist and Kin felt the sound waves rush past her, missing her only by the will of Dosu.

"Allow me to enlighten you," he whispered to her, "Trust, loyalty, friendship, these things are meaningless in the real world." He pulled away from the wall letting pieces of plaster fall to the ground. "In the end, the only person we can count on is ourselves. Any alliances people make they make for their own benefit and no one else's."

Kin found herself frozen to the spot, too afraid to move. All she could do was watch as Dosu turned away from her.

"We are a team only because it benefits us," Dosu told her, "as soon as we no longer need each other any relationship we had is over."

With that he turned around and began to walk away, pausing only to give her one last piece of advice. "Letting a person get close to you only gives them more room to stab you in the back. If anything, Orochimaru should have taught you that."

Kin stood there, unable to move as she listened to Dosu's footsteps fade away. As they grew quieter her face contorted in rage and her fists grew tighter. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she looked down at her fist, and with a sudden scream of rage punched the wall as hard as she could, ignoring the pain.

* * *

"Hmm…what the…?"

Zaku slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a white ceiling. He turned his head to the side and looked around, trying to figure out where the hell he was. It wasn't until he noticed the lack of pain in his arms that it came back to him.

"The surgery!" He sat up in his bed and looked at his arms, a large grin growing on his face at what he saw.

They were perfect. The doctor had preformed a miracle and had healed his arms back to their original state! He held up his hand and flexed it, feeling the strength returning to him. He was so happy he could have laughed.

"Nice to know you're feeling better Zaku."

Zaku's blood froze.

"It's so good to find ones pupils are doing well."

Zaku looked up and stared in fear at the man standing at the foot of his bed. It couldn't be…he...he couldn't have found him this fast…

Orochimaru smiled, "What's wrong? No kind words for your master Zaku?"

Zaku eyes widened in fear at the sight of Orochimaru, his mind filling with images of what the snake sannin could do to him. He tried to speak, tried to explain himself, but found the words dieing in his throat.

"I wasn't pleased that you abandoned me Zaku," Orochimaru told him, his yellow eyes piercing his soul.

The sound of hissing echoed in Zaku's ears and he felt something wrap around his arms. He looked down and saw twin snake wrapping themselves tightly around his limbs. They looked up at Zaku each with a similar smile as their master's, revealing long white fangs.

"You never should have left me Zaku," Orochimaru told him.

Zaku screamed in terror as the snakes lashed out, sinking their fangs deep into his arms as Orochimaru laughed.

* * *

Zaku screamed and bolted upright in his bed, breathing heavily and covered in a cold sweat. The sudden movement caused at sharp pain in his arms and he hissed, feeling like Kin had jabbed thousands of needles into them.

As the memories came flooding back he looked around the room in panic, searching for any signs of his former master.

When he saw there wasn't any he looked down at himself. He was wearing a hospital gown and his arms were now covered in bandages. His right arm had some kind of IV attached to it pumping god knows what into his system. His arms hurt like a bitch too.

He let out a sigh of relief. _"Just a dream," _he thought as he let his head hit the pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

He was still in the hospital bed, apparently having been asleep for several hours seeing as it was nighttime now and darkness enveloped the room. Zaku turned his head to the side and looked out the window, seeing the full moon staring back at him. The pain in his arms had been reduced to a dull ache, and he wondered if the surgery had done anything for them

"What the hell's wrong with you?"

Zaku looked to his right and saw Kin standing in the doorway, her arms crossed and looking severely pissed about something.

"Well?" She asked him.

Zaku shrugged her off and looked back up at the ceiling. "Nothing," he told her, "what are you doing here?"

Kin scoffed, "Someone had to stand guard for your sorry ass." She walked into the room and stood next to his bed, staring at the bandages wrapped around his arms. "So? How do they feel?"

"Like you used them for target practice," he told her, hissing in pain as she punched him in the shoulder. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For being an asshole," she answered, _"Can't believe I tried to defend this bastard."_

Zaku glared at her and turned his head back towards the window, staring off into the night sky.

Kin watched her teammate look away from her, getting the message that she was no longer wanted. _"Fine, I can take a hint,"_ she thought as she turned to leave.

Zaku heard Kin's footsteps heading out the door and sat up to look at her, "Wait," he called out, much to Kins surprise.

"What?" She asked sharply, not really in the mood to get into another fight today.

Zaku gritted his teeth, he really didn't like this. Being in a position of weakness where you had to depend on others for help. Reminded him too much of his younger days.

"What…what did the doctor say?" He asked reluctantly, trying not to seem too worried.

Kin looked back at Zaku, a bit taken aback with the tone he used. He didn't sound like the Zaku she knew at all, the one who was always brash and full of himself. He sounded more like, more like…

More like someone who was genuinely scared about something.

Kin let out a sigh before answering, "He said you'd have your arms working by the end of the week, and as long as you were careful not to overdue it you should still be able to use your wind attacks."

Zaku's face relaxed in relief and he fell back onto his pillow, feeling like a tremendous weight was lifted off his shoulders.

"Is that all?" Kin asked him, "Cause if it is I'm going back to the waiting room to sleep."

Zaku let out a grunt of acknowledgement, and Kin turned away and walked out the doorway. Zaku closed his eyes and a small smile grew on his face. He'd be back soon, and after that no one would mess around with him again.

"Hey Zaku."

The sound of Kin's voice returning took him by surprise, and he looked back up to see her standing in the doorway, a strange look on her face.

"There's a vending machine out here, you want a soda or something?" She asked him.

Zaku looked at her strangely, not really understanding where this was coming from. Seeing her grow more impatient with his silent treatment he simple nodded his head.

Kin nodded, "Alright, be back in a second."

"_That was weird,"_ Zaku thought to himself as he listened to the sound of change being placed into the soda machine outside.

* * *

The night air was cold, but that didn't bother Dosu. He had spent most of his life in the cold.

He carefully wrapped a fresh layer of bandages around his face, being careful to position them in a way that they wouldn't fall from his face when he talked or moved. His hands worked quickly as he finished wrapping the top of his head and moved on to his jaw. He had done this so many times he could have finished ten minutes ago, but tonight he took his time as he had some things on his mind.

He was sitting perfectly balanced in a tree next to Dr. Ikagawa's facility, watching Zaku through his window. He watched as Kin entered with two sodas in hand and listened as she and Zaku had an argument over how he was supposed to drink it without using his hands, ending with Kin throwing the soda on his bed and storming out in anger.

Dosu reached into his pouch for another roll of bandages. Who did Kin think she was kidding?

Out of the three of them, she was the weakest. That was a fact. Her worthless talk of trust and camaraderie were just survival tactics, ways of trying to get others to keep her alive. Yes, Kin was well aware she had little chance of surviving on her own with the likes of Orochimaru after her.

Dosu looked back at the window and was surprised to see Kin reenter the room carrying a straw in her hand. His eye twitched as he watched her pick up the soda can, open it, drop the straw in, and place the can on the table next to Zakus bed so he could lean over and take a sip.

Dosu heard something rip in his hands and looked down to find he had torn a bandage he had been holding, apparently having twisted it too tight while he had been watching.

He cursed himself and put the bandages away, giving a finale glare towards his teammates before he leapt from the tree and ran off into the night in search of another spot where he could be by himself.

They couldn't trust each other, this he knew. They needed each other to survive, but this was only a temporary situation. The moment it was most convenient either one of them would turn his back on the others, himself included. Kin would learn that soon, and if she dared to bring the issue up with him again…

…well, maybe he would just kill her.

In fact, it would probably be best to kill both of them when they were no longer useful, get rid of any loose ends…

Dosu came to a stop, realizing who he just sounded like.

Dosu pushed those thoughts away, deciding it was best to focus on the present. He still needed those two, and would probably still need them for some time in the future so it was no use making plans for anything just yet.

His mind made up Dosu ran along the rooftops of the village, leaving Kin and Zaku to argue between themselves until morning.

* * *

Short chapter I know, but I think chapter 5 is already going to be pretty long so I felt it best to separate the two.

So please leave a review, and if you want check out NARUTO ZOMBIES!


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